'Mike T.' wrote, in part:
| Actually, it would appear we both misunderstood the ratings system. I
just
| looked it up. The memory score on WEI is based on memory bandwidth (which
| in turn is tied directly to memory speed). However, having too little RAM
| can limit bandwidth/speed. According to the chart I read, you can't
achieve
| a higher score than 4.5 on the memory portion of WEI unless your physical
| RAM amount is over 1.5GB. Right NOW, the WEI only goes up to 5.9. (it
will
| be expanded later)
_____
Too little main memory does not reduce the memory bandwidth. It DOES
require more use of the page file. Swapping data and program pages to and
from the hard drive slows the performance of a system, but it does not
reduce the memory bandwidth.
And
"Windows and the applications that run on it have bumped their heads on the
address space limits of 32-bit processors. The Windows kernel is constrained
by default to 2GB, or half the total 32-bit virtual address space, with the
other half reserved for use by the process whose thread is currently running
on the CPU. Inside its half, the kernel has to map itself, device drivers,
the file system cache, kernel stacks, per-session code data structures, and
both non-paged (locked-in physical memory) and paged buffers allocated by
device drivers."
and other information
from
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/03/VistaKernel/Default.aspx?loc=en
might help you understand how a 4 GByte memory space is used in 32-bit
Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista.
Whether you will actually see a difference if you install the maximum amount
of memory depends the mix of applications you run.
Phil Weldon
|
| | > In article <
[email protected]>,
| > Mike T. says...
| >> > Generally, as a rule-of-thumb:
| >> > With Win-95, stick to under 256 meg, unless you want to tweak the
| >> > system.
| >> > With Win-98, stick to under 512 meg.
| >> > With Win-XP, stick to under 4 gig.
| >> > I have no idea of what Vista handles well.
| >> >
| >>
| >> I know what Vista handles well, as Vista has built-in diagnostics.
| >> According to Vista's numerical rating system, anything over 2GB
installed
| >> for Vista would be a waste. My wife scores a 5.8 (Vista's score, not
| >> mine)
| >> out of a possible 5.9 with exactly 2GB of RAM installed. What it would
| >> take
| >> to get 5.9? Who frickin' cares???
-Dave
| >>
| > You misunderstand the ratings system. It measures the RAM speed.
| >
|
| Actually, it would appear we both misunderstood the ratings system. I
just
| looked it up. The memory score on WEI is based on memory bandwidth (which
| in turn is tied directly to memory speed). However, having too little RAM
| can limit bandwidth/speed. According to the chart I read, you can't
achieve
| a higher score than 4.5 on the memory portion of WEI unless your physical
| RAM amount is over 1.5GB. Right NOW, the WEI only goes up to 5.9. (it
will
| be expanded later)
|
| As my wife's computer got a 5.8 with exactly 2GB of RAM, and scores higher
| than 4.5 are only possible with more than 1.5GB of RAM, we can conclude
the
| following:
| - You need -more than- 1.5GB of RAM to maximize memory performance in
| Windows Vista
| - You need no more than 2GB of RAM to *ALMOST* maximize memory
performance
| in Windows Vista
| - It is probably possible to maximize memory performance in Windows Vista
| with exactly 2GB of fast RAM (I doubt if adding more RAM would up the 5.8
| to 5.9, but possibly if my wife's RAM was a TAD faster???)
|
| Based on what you said, and what I read, I stand by my earlier assertion:
| Go for 2GB of RAM, no more, no less. Buy faster RAM if you can afford it
| and the mainboard supports it. -Dave
|
|
